Terran Empire
The Terran Empire was a sovereign state that existed in the Milky Way galaxy from its foundation in 2600 to its abolition in 3275. Though the worlds over which it ruled spanned a wide area of space, much its territory was concentrated in the spin- and rimward edge of the Milky Way in the Orion, Perseus, and Outer Arms of the galaxy. At its height, it ruled roughly a sixth of the Milky Way, including a third of the human population. The Empire came into being in January 2600 when the Terran Dominion ratified the declaration of First Lord William Compton as Emperor, and codified in a short charter the hereditary succession of the Compton dynasty to this newly-established emperordom. Unlike other hereditary titles of nobility in the Dominion, and later Empire, the office of Terran Emperor was established as sovereign, not peerage. Thus, the Terran Emperor outranked all other imperial titles and was seen constitutionally as the fount of honour. At its outset, the Empire was a federal state with clusters of worlds given autonomous powers and their own parliaments, and a weak central parliament. The Imperial Parliament was elected through single-member constituencies, the sheer number of which was perceived as bogging down legislative progress. With calls for reform, the Empire was reorganized as a unitary state during the reign of Empress Mary I, which reduced the number of elected Members of Parliament to 800 and established virtual parliamentary sovereignty. This arrangement lasted until its abolition in 3275. The Empire was, throughout its history, the leading state of the Interstellar Treaty Organisation, and the "galactic face of humanity". Its size, industrial capacity, and power projection eventually enabled and guided the creation of a unified human republic. History The Terran Empire came into being officially on 1 January 2600. In actuality, the constitution enacting its existence was signed into law on 4 December 2599, but the law was not to take effect until the beginning of the next year. The initial formation of the Empire was little different from the preceding Terran Dominion, and it retained the Parliamentary government and limited monarchy of its head of state. The primary changes was the creation of the hereditary emperordom in the House of Compton, and the formal abolition of feudalism. All nobles were obligated to swear fealty to the Emperor, and lay down their sovereign rights over their allodial fiefs. Many did not comply, and the constitutional constraints upon the Emperor prevented the necessary action to enforce this. War between feudal principalities was just as common as war between nobles and the Imperial armed forces. The Emperors were often forced to confer military authority upon loyal nobles, effectively restoring feudalism. The first three centuries were marred by civil war. However, the Empire largely enjoyed external peace, having concluded the Forty Years War with the Soviet Republic in 2602. The Empire sent contingents and approved aid for the popular revolt in the People's Commonwealth of Orion from 2610 to 2612, resulting in the establishment of the Orion Empire on the Terran model. The Empire remained largely uninvolved in international wars. It did, however, send forces for the Galactic Community's humanitarian mission after the Quadrilateral War. The 2700s saw a crash colonisation program to claim territories in the expanded traversal areas of the Outer Rim. The same century saw the discovery of the United Suns, a large alien federation, whose technology revolutionised the Galactic economy. Room-temperature superconductor material allowed nations, including the Terran Empire, to build more powerful and efficient reactors, engines, weapons, spacecraft, and communications technology, as well as consumer electronics; however, the most important application was the miniaturisation of jump-gate projectors and the integration of them onto smaller warships. The proliferation of jump ships by the 2800s enabled the Imperial military to achieve parity with local militias in reaction time. This allowed the Terran Empire to assert central control and bring an end to the feudal wars. The last decade of the 2800s saw Emperor Francis Charles VI personally direct Imperial forces in restoring order. The same century was marred by tragedy, as Earth was struck by a pandemic that killed half of its population between 2862 and 2865. The intensity of the civil wars also disrupted trade and industry, which contributed to the rise of radical political groups in the colonies. The 2880s saw also the introduction of another alien spacefaring empire to the Galactic scene. Francis Charles VI, in the strength of his victories, was able to compel a slew of constitutional amendments in 2900, and others reforms between 2900 and 2905 that radically altered the Empire. The Imperial Reform dismantled most formal constraints on Imperial authority, and restructured the Imperial Parliament. The Crown was vested with considerable power, and the federalisation of the Empire was reversed in favour of a centralised administration; however, the Emperor largely delegated their prerogatives to a government responsible to Parliament. The reforms recognised the effective rise of coherent political parties, by constituting the House of Commons from party-list proprotional representation elections. The newly empowered monarchy conducted sweeping reforms in domestic administration and the military. Through the latter reign of Francis Charles VI, the Empire engaged in an arms race and cold war with its neighbours, particularly the Soviet Republic. In the 2950s, the Terran Empire launched an incursion into the Republic of Perseus to aid democratic rebels there against its pro-Soviet regime. The Empire itself saw a wave of terrorist attacks, particularly from far-right reactionaries. Emperor Francis Charles VII conducted harsh crackdowns on human nationalist political groups as a response, which proved to be unpopular. His son Emperor Baldwin III continued the domestic restrictions, while also hesitating to engage the Empire in the Orionese War of Succession. His successor Francis Charles VIII removed his grandfather's restrictions, liberalised political life, and deployed the Terran military in support of the House of Genevra in the Orion war. The next several Emperors presided over a period of liberal interventionism and colonial expansion, including the proliferation of state capitalism; trade increased between the Empire and its other ISTO allies, as well as with the Free International Group of Nations, a pact of capitalist alien states, including many of the "old guard" alien empires. However, this caused discontent at home as the investment of the alien states in the Terran economy intertwined alien capitalism with the exploitation of human workers. The National Humanist Imperial Labor Party grew during this time among settlers in the Outer Colonies, responding to the sudden infusion of alien economic influence. The NHILP then grew in the Inner Colonies and the Traverse, with the involvement of prominent industrialists in the nationalist movement. At the same time, the Empire expanded its welfare state and public health system, particularly under a string of Social Democratic governments between 3077 and 3147. Starting with Robert VI, the emperors became increasingly conservative and favoured the Imperial Conservative Party, commonly called the Tory Party, as the party of government. Interstellar politics in the Empire solidified by the early 3100s. The conservative element aligned with the Tory Party; the left-centre into the Social Democratic Party; the radical nationalists came to rally to the NHILP; and the revolutionary left was split among the Terran Communist Party, the Colonial Home Rule Party, and the Socialist Worker's Party. The NHILP rose in the 3140s to join the Tories in a right-wing coalition and in 3147 even acquired the premiership under Leon Botha, but scandals forced them out of power after a snap election later that year. The NHILP took decades to recover, and suffered under persecution by Emperor Francis Charles X. The Emperor ruled by decree starting in 3161, but was compelled to call an election in 3167 in preparation for war. The NHILP was banned from participating, and the Tories formed a coalition with the Social Democrats to approve supply for the military expedition to the Republic of Perseus. Imperial forces invaded the Perseus Arm between 3171 and 3179 to overthrow its communist government in favour of a monarchy aligned with the Terran Empire and the ISTO. The Emperor nevertheless perceived the National Humanists as a threat, in part due to their protest of the war between human; Party leader Alberto Fiorini was attainted and executed in 3180. Francis Charles X died in 3182 on the eve of the general election. Emperor Francis Charles XI lifted the restrictions on the party and allowed them to participate in the election. The NHILP won a 38% plurality but not a majority of seats in the Commons, resulting in a hung Parliament. A nonpartisan member of the House of Lords, John of Great Britain, was appointed Prime Minister as a political compromise and the NHILP, Tories, and Social Democrats were given ministerial posts proportional to their electoral share. When John of Great Britain resigned the premiership due to ill health in 3185, the Emperor simply appointed Tory backbencher Philip XIV of Luna, rather than call a snap election. The election of 3187 saw the National Humanist grow to a 41% share, at the expense of the Social Democrats, as trade unionists started to split their partisan loyalties. The NHILP offered a platform of economic protectionism, human labour rights, and opposition to alien labour, and operated its own labour union. The NHILP's street militia engaged in combat with communist urban guerrillas through the 3190s, creating a mood of political unrest and tension over the next few electoral cycles. In the 3202 election, the National Humanists won a 50.5% majority in the Commons, but not solid enough to command Parliament as the Lords remained largely Tory; they did, however, have the ability to initiate budgetary policy, and formed a coalition government. The Emperor tacitly approved to the Nationalist platform of economic protectionism, strengthening the military, and strengthening the welfare state. The Social Democrats collapsed in the lead-up to he 3207 election, and split into a National Government faction that merged with the Tory-Nationalist coalition, and the revolutionary leftists that joined the Socialist Worker's Party. The National Humanists won a 52% majority. During this time, the cold war between the ISTO and the Soviets crystallised and the Empire broke off its trade relations with the FIGN. The Galactic Community became a moribund institution as the nations of the Galaxy formed into three distinct power blocs. The Terran Empire strongly led the ISTO, and by the 33rd centuries dominated even the Empire of Sagittarius and the Empire of Orion. The Terran government promoted colonisation and settlement, and crash industrialisation on many worlds to keep pace with the interstellar arms race. After Philip of Luna died in 3208, a snap election was expected; but the Emperor instead appointed another Tory backbencher lord, the King of Newfoundland, to the premiership. The NHILP staged a walkout of Parliament, shutting down the government with a threat to withhold supply. The government acquiesced to Nationalist demands and appointed Party chairman Anthony Drendle to Deputy Prime Minister and other party members to the ministries of Education, Welfare, Justice, Culture, Commerce, and Interior, though the Tories still held the chair and the ministries of War, Foreign Affairs, and the Treasury. This arrangement lasted through several election cycles. Near the end of Francis Charles XI's reign, the Empire became embroiled in a proxy war with the Soviets in the Kingdom of Crux; the Cruxite War involved considerable deployment of Imperial forces in support of a human ally. Francis Charles XI died in 3231, leaving the throne to his grandson whose power was exercised by Prince Regent Frederick of Luna until 3235. Francis Charles XII came to be a deeply pious and conservative emperor, and attempted to preserve Terran Imperial traditions in the face of the massive rise and popularity of human nationalism. He appointed Frederick of Luna to the premiership after the 3237 elections, as he was member of both the Tories and the National Humanists; the NHILP gained the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was thereafter able to guide foreign and domestic policy. But in 3241, the Emperor dissolved parliament and ruled with his cabinet and Prime Minister for almost ten years; to avoid a budget crisis, the last session of parliament passed a ten-year omnibus economic plan, tax regime, and spending bill. The rapid expansion of colonisation presented difficulties as spending was not able to increase to keep pace, forcing private entities to administer many colonisation programs in the frontier. Instead, the Empire focused on military buildup, in order to make war with the Terran Empire seem like a suicidal proposition for the Soviets or the FIGN members. Constitutional history William I consciously modelled the new monarchy on Napoleonic France, and created the concept that the Emperor's sovereignty derived from the people and the Emperor likewise had a responsibility to provide for the welfare of its subjects. The Emperor wielded moderated executive power, with most governing authority delegated to the Prime Minister, who would be appointed by the Emperor on the advice and consent of Parliament. The first Imperial Constitution defined this relationship, and retained the Dominion's parliamentary structure. The lower assembly, the House of Commons, consisted of delegations of the member worlds and colonies, as well as delegations for specific groups, such as spacers and aliens. These delegations were composed of single-member constituencies elected by first-past-the-post voting, and Earth's was by far the largest. As the Empire grew, however, these constituencies multiplied greatly in number, as did the size of some delegations relative to Earth's, and made political decision-making difficult. The Parliament became bitterly partisan and sectional in its proceedings. The Terran Emperor, in this first phase of the Empire, held little domestic governing power. As the electoral system made the selection of a Prime Minister difficult, and the Emperor was legally constrained from governing the Empire directly, ministerial gridlock was commonplace and Imperial member worlds practically governed themselves. Civil war between feudal planetary lords was a constant issue, and a threat to the sovereignty and legitimacy of the Emperor. The right of the Emperor to use military force to put down these feuds was a hot-button within among the aristocracy and only gradually came to be accepted as a necessary right. The "feudal period" lasted from the middle of James I's reign to the reforms of Francis Charles VI in 2900, during which several Emperors involved themselves directly in feudal wars and some perished in battle. Francis Charles VI eventually put down the majority of rebellions and called for a wide-ranging Imperial Reform. The issue of powerful local aristocrats and warlords remained, however, a constant problem until the end of the Empire, though it ceased to reach the levels of feudal warfare it had in the 2700s. Francis Charles VI presided over the passage of a slate of amendments to the Imperial Constitution. Under this, the Empire became a stronger, centralised parliamentary monarchy. The Emperor was vested with supreme executive power and the Prime Minister was responsible to both the monarch and to the parliament. The reformation of the House of Commons into party-list proportional representation enabled the consolidation of political parties into coalitions or, gradually, functional interstellar political parties. The reign of Mary II saw the reformation of the Commons into a fixed assembly of 800 members, and lowered the threshold for entry into the Parliament. The reformed Middle Empire era saw the expansion of executive power, especially that of the Crown, even as Parliament was nominally granted supreme legislative authority; several monarchs suspended parliament during times of emergency or crisis. The Late Empire saw rapid constitutional changes. The greatest of these was the 11th-hour abolition of the Premiership by Emperor Maximilian Charles upon his accession in 3268. Other changes included the establishment of a complex state security apparatus, emergency measures against treasonous political groups, and suspension of some civil liberties. In its last few years, the Terran Empire took the brunt of organisational changes that transformed the Interstellar Treaty Organisation into the Central Galactic Union. The Terran Empire was finally abolished, along with all other member states of the Galactic Confederation, on 30 March 3275 by an edict of the Confederate Assembly. Government The Terran Imperial government was structured by both a codified and a customary constitution, the body of codified laws and stautes, and the accumulated precedent of six centuries of common law. By the 2600 Imperial Constitution, the government was formed as a federative monarchy with clear separation between the executive and legislature. This had resulted in considerable civil and military strife, and the reforms of the amendments to the Imperial Constitution in the early 2900s changed the structure of the Empire. From the 2900s to the end of the Empire, the government was structured as a Westminster-style parliamentary monarchy. The clear delimitation of powers between the executive and the legislative were dissolved in favour of a strong central and parliamentary government; the Emperor and the Prime Minister became powerful figures of the Middle and Late Empire periods, as the feudalism of the previous three centuries was dismantled. The central embodiment of the government was the Crown, the legal entity of the state in all its aspects. The Emperor, as head of state, embodied the Crown and was the de jure source of political legitimacy. The Emperor was advised by the Privy Council, a group of imperial advisors. In practice, much of the executive power was delegated to the Cabinet, a committee within the Privy Council. While the Cabinet in theory could be composed at the Emperor's discretion, in practice Cabinet was composed of members of political groups that could command a majority in the Imperial Parliament. The Prime Minister was the chairperson of the Cabinet, and was usually the head of that political grouping. By the time of the Imperial Reform in early 2900s, these political groups had organised and solidified into distinct political parties. Despite these constitutional conventions, the Emperors often did appoint Prime Ministers that were back-benchers of their parties, and were able to dismiss an inadequate Prime Minister. By custom, the Emperor could make one decree at the throne on the day of his or her coronation without requiring the advice of Parliament; this was usually a relatively minor piece of policymaking, but in 3268 Emperor Maximilian Charles I used this to abolish the office of Prime Minister and assert the right of the Emperor to personally chair Cabinet. The Imperial Parliament was composed of the House of Commons and the House of Lords, which came to exercise parliamentary supremacy. Initially, the Commons were composed of members representing single-member constituencies, the number of which swelled as federal subjects developed out of territories held by the Empire. By 2900, the Commons were composed of 12,588 members. This was drastically reduced to a 1000-member house elected by party-list proportional representation, which was reduced further to 800 members by the reforms promulgated by Empress Mary II in 3092. The House of Lords had always been composed of the hereditary and appointed nobility of the Empire, becoming a body of around 2,000 members. The House of Commons had the sole right to originate spending bills, and most legislation originated and was debated in the Commons. The role of the House of Lords was to review the laws passed by the Commons prior to Imperial Assent. The Lords, while not chosen on the basis of partisan representation, often aligned to one or more political parties, though a considerable number always remained nonpartisan. The Lords could block or delay bills passed by the Commons, including supply or money bills; in effect, the head of government had to command a majority or a workable coalition in both the Commons and the Lords to enact policy. The Parliament could force the dismissal or reshuffle of a cabinet if the government were unable to secure supply. The Parliament was traditionally elected every five years, but snap elections could be called or Parliament could be dissolved by the Emperor at any time. The judiciary was complicated, and was both independent and intertwined with the executive and legislature, and was based around a combination civil and common law. The House of Lords functioned as the highest court of appeal, and the court of first instance of trial of peers. The Lord Chancellor presided over most constitutional, criminal, and civil cases, while the Lord Constable presided over cases regarding the misuse of heraldry. These officers were held by hereditary right by specific peers. They were advised by peers with legal training, who often acted in their stead. All of these judicial officers acted in the name of the Emperor. However, the common law system of the judiciary established that it could restrain the prerogatives and power of the Emperor and the Parliament by its ability to review laws in court. Generally, lower Crown Courts would act as courts of first instance and appeal, moving from the sub-regional level to the regional, planetary, star system, and then provincial level; an appeal could be then placed towards the High Court of Justice, which also acted as the court of first instance for treason and other political crimes. A separate Military Courts system existed for the armed forces, and an Admiralty Court for cases where maritime law applied. The Emperor had the prerogative of executive pardon, though this was used prudently. The Empire was originally administered with each world as its own province, sometimes grouped as districts for the purposes of defence, social services administration, and the law courts. After 2900, worlds were grouped into Provinces; each world was either a County, a Colony, or an Imperial Territory. Governors of each world were appointed by the Emperor, and each province had an elected Provincial Parliament; most worlds had some form of representative, responsible government in the form of county commissions, colonial assemblies, or other unitary authorities.